A higher defence budget can buy equipment for Taiwan's military. It cannot put a trained person beside it on the day it passes.

Taiwan is closely monitoring a series of Chinese live-fire drills. That requires personnel now. The alert arrives on the calendar Beijing sets, whatever stage Taiwan's recruitment and training have reached.

The Korea Times reports that Taiwan's military manpower shortage is undermining its ability to fight. That puts a constraint underneath every promise of stronger readiness: equipment needs people who can operate it. Money can authorise a purchase immediately. Training takes longer.

On October 10, this paper recorded President Lai Ching-te, Taiwan's elected leader, raising defence spending to deter war. Today's drills in the Taiwan Strait put an immediate demand against that longer undertaking. The people answering the alert are already on the books.

That is the pressure Beijing is applying. Each demand for readiness draws on the force Taiwan has while its government pays to build the force it needs. Announcing more resources does not relieve today's duty.

The reports do not establish how many personnel these drills require or how much training they displace. They do establish that an understaffed military must monitor another live-fire exercise. The shortage has acquired an immediate task.

If Beijing keeps imposing these demands, Taiwan's serving personnel will have to sustain the alerts while also building the readiness the higher budget is meant to deliver.